Banksy's mysterious new piece has been tracked down in the artist's hometown -
and it could help the fortunes of a historic youth club

Banksy's Mobile Lovers has been tracked down by a member of the public in Bristol, 24 hours after the new piece appeared on the street artist's website.

Banksy sent his fans on a treasure hunt after posting the new work online. With only two photos of the artwork, which depicts two embracing lovers staring at their own mobile phones, the only clues about the stencil work's location were given in its surroundings: a black lampost, a stone wall and a partially cobbled street.

However, Sally was not the first to see the work. Instead, 58-year-old Dennis Stinchcombe discovered Mobile Lovers on Sunday. Mr Stinchcombe, who has always lived in Bristol, runs Broad Plains Boys Club at the end of Clement Street and told his colleagues about the work after finding it.

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"I saw it and I was pretty sure it was a Banksy, but we kept it fairly in house", he told The Telegraph. "It's only after the piece was uploaded on his website that things have gone crazy around here."

Clement Street, Mr Stinchcombe said, "is on the gateway to the city", with a shopping centre a few hundred meters away "Thousands and thousands of cars pass every day". Yet, it took 24 hours for the Banksy piece to be spotted.

Banksy first started creating street art in Bristol, and Mr Stinchcombe has long been a supporter of his work. "I think he is a genius", he said. "His work always has a message and a reason behind it, but it's completely inoffensive because it looks wonderful".

For Mr Stinchcombe and the Broad Plain Boys Club, the work couldn't have surfaced in a more fortuitous place. The Club, which offers after-school entertainment for young people, is due to celebrate its 120th anniversary. However, with the facillity desperately in need of funds, Mr Stinchcombe hopes the new Banksy piece will help attract the public's generosity. "We're trying to find £120,000 as part of the anniversary. Maybe the Banksy will help", he said, "Banksy's been brilliant for Bristol".

Banksy's work is often subject to vandalism from other street and graffiti artists' tags as well as art collectors, who remove the works for sale at auction, despite the fact they are rarely authorised. "I hope it doesn't get damaged", Mr Stinchcombe said. "It would be a great pity. Before it was just a dirty black wall".

Mobile Lovers appeared a day after another new artwork, suspected to be created by Banksy, emerged in Cheltenham. The stencil of three spies surrounding a damaged phone box has attracted attention from locals and street art fans, and is thought to be making a comment on surveillance mere miles away from Government Communications Headquarters.

Now fans are waiting to see if another will appear on the elusive artists' website, with a continued hunt around the country for new work.